As for setting up basic bash configuration, a little experimentation shows that this is what I've got (debian 3.0r1). Root has both .bashrc and .profile, and the configuations (custom bash prompt and setterm) can go in either place. User has a .bashrc and .bash_profile (there's no .profile), and the configuration must go into the latter. It does not work for me if put into .bashrc. Thanks for alerting me to this difference. Haines